Here we are at Labor Day weekend. Two months to go before Election Day and we just MIGHT be poised to take the U.S. House of Representatives. So, at this point in the election cycle, I would like to ponder this question:

What would it mean for San Francisco, and the people of the Eight Congressional District if Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker?

Other than the symbolic prestige, would it mean more money to upgrades the streets? Perhaps the city can upgrade and improve our transit system? Could BART get enough funding to expand further into the South Bay and consider providing service to the North Bay?

Who would benefit the most politically? Gavin Newson? Fiona Ma? Mark Leno? The local unions?

When I lived in Michigan, John Dingell was my Congressman, and Christmas came year-round while he was Oversight Chairman. Hopefully now, California, especially the Bay Area, can get its fair share.

After introducing herself and asking the crowd if they were ready for a female speaker, Nancy’s speech went into iraq, civil liberties, and homeland security. She also said that a D congress would repeal oil tax subsidies. 

Also, the party is webcasting the convention. Check it out at ca-dems.org 

California News Roundup on the flip. Teasers: Peter Schrag on California, Pelosi profiled, Schwarzenegger profiled, voter registration, Dean, salmon, emissions regulation, insurance, and of course, lots of immigration.

Not Immigration

• Shorter Peter Schrag: California is just very confused. Discuss at the California Progress Report.
• The Chron has the first in a three-part profile of Nancy Pelosi. This installment, at least, is very pro-Pelosi, and pro-machine.
• The LA Times profiles Schwarzenegger. I don’t have any idea what to make of the profile, except that I’m sure I would never want to work for this guy.
• Voter registration is still hosed, requiring registrars to manually confirm hundreds and sometimes thousands of new registrations in time for the June primary (and in CA-50, by April 11).
• Ballot Watch Graphic from the SacBee on the race to replace Steve Westly as State Controller.
• Capitol Roundup from the Merc / CC Times, showing what they thought was important in state politics last week. Oddly, that doesn’t include the minimum wage bills under debate.
• Two different views on Howard Dean’s recent visit to the area: one from the AP, focusing on his statements on immigration, and one directly from the local reporter focusing on the Asian-American Democrats’ conference.
• California steps up with emissions regulations to try to slow global warming. Of course, business interests want it ignored handled at the federal level. The Bush Administration apparently agrees, and is attempting to override both the EPA and state regulations with adminstrative rulemaking by the Transportation Department. Federalism and deference to the legislative branch are core principles of the Republican Party. No, seriously. Stop laughing. Stop it.
• Great piece from the San Francisco Chronicle laying out the constituencies affected by Klamath River damming and water usage decisions, and why now is the time that perhaps past mistakes destroying the salmon fishery can be rectified.
• The Sacramento Bee reports on a privacy screwup by the California State Employment Development Department. Before all y’all anti-government types get twisted up, though, the EDD’s screwup pales beside corporate screwups.
• Last, one of my hobbyhorses: setting auto insurance rates based on driving record, not zip code.

Immigration

• Gregory Rodriguez’s LA Times Op-Ed provides some additional context on the issue of Mexican immigration. Seriously, this is a complicated question, and there’s going to be a lot of “more context” stuff.
• A SacBee piece “analyzing” the effect of the immigration discussion on the California gubernatorial race. And by “analyzing”, I mean turning mostly to political consultants for each major party to criticize the other side’s approach.
• A series of pieces from New America Media about the interaction between black Americans and immigrants. I might read them slightly out of chronological order: (1) Straight Reporting, (2) Earl Ofari Hutchison (3) The Black Commentator / Bruce Dixon, and (4) The Black Commentator / Bruce Dixon again.
• Everybody running for CA-11 against Richard Pombo is more sane on immigration than he is. One finds this article as well, profiling the more nativist of the Republicans in California’s U.S. Representatives. Frankly, my head just spins when I hear Republicans from the House talk about “rule of law”.
• New polling says that in California, immigration is a partisan issue. Nationwide, not so much.

Today’s CaliBlogger roundup below the fold:

• Daddy, Papa & Me notes that the San Francisco Archdiocese is looking at preventing SF Catholic Charities from placing children for adoption with GLBT couples. In related news, the SF Chronicle tells us that a new Field Poll finds a significant positive shift in Californian’s views of same-sex marriage, relationships, military service, and adoption. Can’t happen fast enough.
• Left I on The News draws a contrast between the amount that the proposed Santa Clara County sales tax bump would raise, and the amount of money already spent in Iraq. Bottom Line: Santa Clara County residents have spent way more on Iraq.
• Santa Cruz for Change notes that Christine Pelosi (Nancy Pelosi’s daughter) will be offering her perspective tomorrow night on the Reid / Pelosi plan for the 2006 mid-terms. I look forward to hearing that. Perhaps Ms. Pelosi can explain where regulating bloggers, coming out against Feingold’s censure resolution, and enforcing an ethics truce in the House play into that plan.
• On that note, one should read Robert Shaw’s piece in BeyondChron, and the resulting letters.
• Say No To Pombo has two good posts. First, Richard Pombo gets new House Ag Committee leadership role, no doubt to show that some good Pombo pork will come to the Central Valley should he be relected. Second, VPO suggests that some Dems switch their registration to Decline to State for the primary in order to vote for McCloskey in the Republican primary.
• The BradBlog (the place to go for all your voting machine news) points us to a great summary of the suit against Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to prevent him from certifying the Diebold voting machines for the upcoming elections. The summary, unsurprisingly, comes from State Sen. Debra Bowen, herself a candidate for Secretary of State.
• The California Observer points us to this handy list of the contributors who ponied up at the Schwarzenegger / McCain Corporate Interest Festival earlier this week.
• The Left Coaster’s paradox rips into Carolyn Lochhead of the Chron for failing to call Bush out on a flat-out lie. Note as well, toward the end of the article, the verbatim reprint of Bush’s Luntz-approved “Democrat Party” sneer, without even a [sic]. Maybe Lochhead and the Chron don’t know that the name of the party is the Democratic Party, now matter how many times the Republicans call it something else.